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Abstract

HIV/AIDS Health Promotion and Education is a three-year project that focused on improving HIV/AIDS knowledge and access to HIV/AIDS counseling and testing services for young Native American adults, ages 15 to 35 at two colleges in North Dakota. Strategies included developing culturally-appropriate curricula on HIV/AIDS, providing trainings to peer educators and conducting peer-to-peer HIV/AIDS education activities. An evaluation was conducted to assess changes in HIV/AIDS knowledge and behavior and utilization of health services. The data was collected from students and medical staff using pre and post surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Students were surveyed on their HIV/AIDS knowledge and behavior before and after the program, and the medical staff was interviewed once a year to discuss changes in their health services. The evaluation documented an increase in students' knowledge about HIV/AIDS, including knowledge about sexually transmitted infections, healthy relationships, and physical anatomy. In terms of access to HIV/AIDS services, the evaluation revealed that there was an increase in the number of medical staff at the medical departments, and the number of people seeking HIV counseling increased from 20 per month to 100 per month in the past year. Also, the number of people seeking HPV inoculations increased from 0 to 25 per month.

Related NPA Goals:

• Increased awareness, education and outreach to address racial/ethnic minority health and health disparities problems
• Improved access to, and appropriate utilization of, health & other community-based services and systems through user-centered design for racial/ethnic minorities (e.g., health IT, culturally/ linguistically appropriate services, service provider education/ training, workforce diversity)
• Strengthened leadership and coordination to leverage resources and enhance effectiveness and efficiency of individual and collective efforts (including, but not limited to, research and data)

Related Healthy People 2010 Objectives:

• 1-3g Increase the proportion of persons appropriately counseled about the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases
• 13-05 Reduce new HIV cases
• 13-06 Increased condom use
• 13-07 Increased the number of HIV positive persons who know their serostatus